Take your pick of Poole pottery at single-owner sale
13 February 2020 The Dorothy and Jim Watson collection of Poole pottery comes for sale at Cottees in Poole on February 29.
The Carter Company, established by Jesse Carter in 1873 on the quayside at Poole, was primarily concerned with the manufacture of tiling and architectural products. This Carter & Co advertising roundel is modelled to the well with a stylised dolphin and bottle kiln - symbols of the Poole pottery. Estimate £200-300.
The 211 lots cover most periods of factory productions from the turn-of-the-century productions of Carter & Company through to some of the last pieces made on the site in the 1990s.
A number of pieces in the sale were those pictured in Leslie Hayward and Paul Atterbury’s factory history Poole Pottery, Carter & Company and their Successors, 1873-2002.
Pictured here are a selection of pieces that together provide a brief history of one of the UK’s most enterprising potteries.
Commemorative wares were part of a search for alternative production following the outbreak of war. A series of patriotic tiles depicting First World War leaders included this one of Field Marshall Lord Kitchener. Estimate £40-60.
Under design head James Radley Young, the Poole factory established links with the Omega Workshops. Radley Youngs simple designs, decorated in the traditional Delft manner, showed the influence of Continental, Moorish and Egyptian potters. A geometric motif, with a debt to Belgium ceramics of the period, decorates this 9in (22cm) lidded box on tray (above). View and bid here for the lidded tray (estimate £400-600).
Two years after Owen Carter died, his brother Charles formed the partnership with the designer and silversmith Harold Stabler and the Stoke-on-Trent potter John Adams in 1921 that ushered in Poole's heyday.
The Bull, designed by Harold and Phoebe Stabler is one of the defining pieces of the Carter Stabler Adams period of production. First modelled as a bronze in 1914, the 13in (32cm) high model was made at Poole in the 1920s and early 1930s. In 1923 the retail price was six guineas. View and bid for this bull (estimate £1000-1500).
Carter Stabler Adams wares from the very early 1920s are often described as ‘transitional’ pieces as they mark the crossover between the early Carters designs on grey semi-stoneware to a red earthenware body covered in white slip. View and bid for the Cocky Ollie Bird platter (pictured above).
A shape 684 YFT pattern vase estimated at £50-70.
The Second World War caused a complete rethink at many of Britain's potteries. Poole’s classic retro Contemporary and associated Freeform slip cast wares with their Festival of Britain styling were ground breaking in British industrial ceramics design.
Some of the first pieces in the range were created during a six-month tenure in 1950 by Claude Smale, a former student of the Royal College of Art. They include this shape 684 YFT pattern vase (above) estimated at £50-70.
This 12in (30cm) ginger jar and cover was one of the last pieces made at the Poole Pottery quayside site before factory operations moved in 1999. Estimated at £60-80, view and bid for the jar here.
This 12in (30cm) ginger jar and cover was one of the last pieces made at the Poole Pottery quayside site before factory operations moved in 1999. Decorated by Karen Brown with a design of sailing ships, it is signed and dated 23/2/98. Estimate £60-80.
